102. The IACHR
corroborated that the situation of indigenous and Afro-Colombian women
is particularly critical, as they are victims of multiple forms of
discrimination on the basis of their race, ethnic background and their
condition as women, a situation aggravated within the armed conflict.
They face two layers of discrimination since they are born: firstly, as
members of their racial and ethnic group and secondly, their sex. Being
exposed to two forms of discrimination historically, they are doubly
vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment by the armed groups in their
struggle to control resources and territory. As previously stated, the
armed groups exploit and manipulate social disadvantage factors in
specific groups as a strategy of war. In the case of indigenous and
Afro-Colombian women, there is more than one vulnerability factor they
can abuse.

103. In this
regard, the United Nations Rapporteur has stated that:

Women
from the indigenous and Afro-Colombian population suffer
multiple/intersectional discrimination on the basis of gender, race,
color and ethnic origin and as internally displaced persons…..The
conflict reproduces and deepens discrimination between the different
groups and women suffer intersectional discrimination on the basis of
their gender, and their ethnic and cultural origin.[124]

104. Article
9 of the Convention of Belém do Pará stipulates that, in acting with due
diligence, the State must take special account of the increased
vulnerability to violence that women may suffer because of their race
and ethnic background, among other risk factors. This provision was
enacted because discrimination, in its different manifestations, does
not always affect all women to the same degree: there are women who are
more exposed to the infringement of their rights. Certain women
confront various forms of discrimination, which increases their
vulnerability and exposure to being abused on the basis of more than one
factor.

105.
Internationally, it has been recognized that discrimination, in its
different manifestations, can be motivated by two or more factors. For
example, the Committee overseeing compliance with CEDAW has stated in
this regard that:

Certain
groups of women, in addition to suffering from discrimination directed
against them as women, may also suffer from multiple forms of
discrimination based on additional groups such as race, ethnic or
religious identify, disability, age, class, caste or other factors.
Such discrimination may affect these groups of women primarily, or in
different ways than men. State parties may need to take specific
temporary special measures to eliminate such multiple forms of
discrimination against women and its compounded negative impact on them.[125]

106.
Additionally, the World Conference Against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenofobia and Related Intolerance, recognized that
racial discrimination and racism manifest differently for women and
girls and lead to the detriment of their living conditions, poverty,
violence, multiple forms of discrimination, the limitation or denial of
their human rights.[126]
Furthermore, the United Nations Committee against Racial Discrimination
has recognized the serious consequences and the unsafe situation of
women who face multiple forms of discrimination. It has emphasized that
racial discrimination does not always affect women and men the same way,
and that there are circumstances in which racial discrimination only or
mainly affects women.[127]
Certain forms of racial discrimination may be directed specifically
against women because of their gender, such as sexual violence during an
armed conflict.[128]

107. The IACHR
was able to verify that the situation of Afro-Colombian women living on
the Pacific coast is particularly precarious and alarming. Both State
authorities and non-State sources confirmed that the Afro-Colombian
population has been subjected to a history of discrimination, exclusion,
invisibility and social disadvantage, both economic and geographic. The
armed conflict has worsened this situation, since the armed actors
profit from these disadvantages in their struggle to control territories
and resources. In the particular case of Afro-Colombian women, their
condition as women adds another factor of discrimination and
vulnerability to their lives and exposes them to greater abuses by the
actors of the conflict:

We women
have been trampled over in our territory and anywhere by the different
groups, the legal and illegal armed groups, who kidnap us, kill, rape
and humiliate us … leaving as a consequence of these actions the
deterioration of the social fabric around us. Therefore, there is no
doubt that the armed conflict has harmed black women’s feelings, their
ancestral legitimacy, their creativity to form and generate life, their
cultural identity and their love for their territory.[129]

108. The
United Nations Rapporteur, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and
the Mesa de Trabajo Mujer y Conflicto Armado have identified
Afro-Colombian women as a particularly vulnerable group to violence and
the consequences of the conflict on the civilian population, such as
forced displacement.[130]
In its last report, the High Commissioner for Human Rights specifically
stated that:

The
security, particularly of rural, indigenous and Afro-Colombian women and
girls and of those that are organized, displaced, confined or are
returnees, has deteriorated as a result of the armed conflict and the
use of sexual violence and social control by the illegal armed groups.[131]

109. The
Mesa de Trabajo Mujer y Conflicto Armado has stated that the “racism
that prevails in Colombian society is also present in the way the armed
actors reproduce, in their relations with Afro-Colombian women,
exclusionary and discriminatory practices that ignore their
differences.”[132]

110. The ICBF
confirmed with the Rapporteur that the Afro-Colombian population
comprises approximately 20% of the Colombia’s population. The Rapporteur
had the opportunity to interview a number of networks, groups and
Afro-Colombian women who made reference to the “subtle racism” in
Colombian society towards Afro-Colombians because of their race, which
has meant for them, as a group, unequal access to the country’s
economic, social and political development. They communicated that this
racism limits their access to educational services, work, income and
participation in national and local decision-making. For example,
groups of women in Quibdó, where 85% of the population is
Afro-descendent, indicated that most of the population lives in extreme
poverty. Quibdó[133]
is the locality with the least water supply coverage in the country, 81%
of homes have no sewage, illiteracy is up to 19% and maternal mortality
rates are high.[134]
The State has estimated that 72% of the Afro-Colombian population is in
the country’s two lowest socio-economic strata.[135]

111. All of
these factors have limited the possibilities for this population to
enjoy their particular worldview, traditions and culture and have
promoted their invisibility in the public policies of the country.
Local authorities of the government of Quibdó, confirmed to the
Rapporteur that they felt like a territory forgotten by the national
authorities in the social and economic spheres.

112. In the
particular case of women, their sex has exposed them to discrimination
not only because for their condition as Afro-Colombian, but also because
they are women, both in and outside of their communities.
Afro-Colombian women shared with the Rapporteur information about the
discrimination and violence they suffer from inside their own
communities because they are women. For example, they are left out of
most organizational processes in their communities, either in the form
of community councils, municipal councils, departmental assemblies, and
other such models, and they are subject to cultural stereotypes based on
their sexuality.[136]

113. The
racism and marginalization of the Afro-Colombian groups, as well as them
inhabiting territories with resources appealing to combatants, has
resulted in their territories turning into scenarios of violence and
death, making them one of the population groups with the highest rate of
forced displacement, which can reach 30% according to CODHES and Human
Rights Watch.[137]
For example, Quibdó is an attractive territory for the armed actors
because it has one of the world’s highest biodiversity rates, coasts on
both oceans, good conditions to grow coca and oil palm. For
Afro-Colombians, this reality is particularly harsh because of their
close connection with their territory, culture, identity and past. The
aggressions by the armed actors are an attack against their culture and
their worldview.

114. The
Colombian State enacted Law 70 in 1993, which recognizes the
Afro-Colombian population as an ethnic group and sets standards for the
protection of their cultural identity and rights. Through this law the
State recognizes that Afro-Colombians have the right to live according
to their own worldview, are entitled to exist as an ethnic group with
different needs, and to enjoy their collective property over areas they
have occupied according to their traditional production practices.
However, illegal armed groups do not respect the right of collective
ownership of the Afro-Colombian groups.

115. One of
the worst effects of the conflict on Afro-Colombian women is the forced
displacement and its consequences. According to CODHES figures, women
constitute approximately half of the displaced population and as much as
28% are reported to be Afro-Colombian women.[138]
An analysis of different figures also leads us to conclude that women
constitute about 50% of the Afro-Colombian displaced population and
almost half are heads of household.[139]
Within the percentage of displaced women who are heads of household, the
highest rates are among Afro-Colombian women (47%) and indigenous women
(49%).[140]

116. The
impact of forced displacement on Afro-Colombian women is significant and
manifests itself in various ways, due to their worldview, culture and
traditions, identification with their territory and their condition as
women. In addition to the effects on women discussed in previous
sections, Afro-Colombian women lose the ability to carry out their
cultural practices, for example, having wakes for their deceased,
funeral rites, and in general, sharing community life.[141]
For example, during the meeting that the Rapporteur held with networks
of women in Quibdó, the delegation received the following testimony from
an Afro-Colombian victim of forced displacement:

We
cannot use the river as we always have ancestrally, as a sacred place.
But not anymore, because of the occupation of the armed actors.[142]

117. The loss
of territory is also crucial for them. From their perspective, it
represents more than a physical space, integrating “neighbors, animals,
nature, and social organization: elements that provided a feeling of
belonging to a group and distinguishing them from the rest”.[143]

118. The
change in roles and family structure faced by displaced women may be
even more intense and radical in the case of Afro-Colombian women living
in rural areas who move to urban zones, because of the community life
that they used to lead, the traditional correlation of their activities
with those of their husbands or fathers, and the uprooting of this
social model. CODHES has described this change as follows:

For
rural, indigenous and Afro-Colombian women, the change they experience
because of displacement is very significant; generally, their movements
in the past closely corresponded to the movements of their father or
husband, their social setting was limited to household activities and
production in the same area, as well as their relations with
organizations and other outsiders through their men … This situation has
molded their self-image and understanding of their environment, which
clashes with the perspectives of the urban setting when they arrive in
the city. They are exposed to complex cultural, affective, material and
spatial losses, particularly when they attempt to symbolically and
materially reaffirm their maternal role, which they have always played
in their own culture, generating life and preserving family stability.[144]

119. The
situation of Afro-Colombian women in the Pacific Coast reveals the
relegation of Afro-Colombian women inhabiting rural zones to the
domestic sphere as a historical fact.
[145] They are the
center of their family group and of the direct ties between their
children and family members.

Afro-Colombian women subscribe to a social pattern that assigns them the
role of care-givers, with domestic chores under their responsibility,
and furthermore, male mobility as opposed to female lack of mobility is
assumed as a form of complementing roles; the behavioral norms for men
and women are different.[146]

They are also
entrusted with transmitting beliefs, traditional norms and controls
inside the community and to define elements of identification with their
territory. These traditions and practices change with the displacement
experience.[147]

120. Groups
and networks of women interviewed by the delegation in Quibdó described
the consequences of displacement for Afro-Colombian women and the change
in family structure, roles and traditions they face, as follows:

On their
shoulders falls the reorganization, care, and daily hygiene tasks of the
family and even the community. Generally, housework is done by women and
under these conditions men feel unable to solve these problems and
unable to do the work they ordinarily do in their fields. This generates
an emotional overload for women, because this situation sometimes leads
to family conflicts. Furthermore, women are generally obliged to take
the responsibility of obtaining the economic resources to support the
family, since the uprooted conditions make it more difficult for men to
do work that would generate income, whereas women can work as maids,
washing clothes or selling any product as street vendors. When the
resettlement is in shelters, women’s privacy is affected, because these
places are usually not adapted to satisfying private hygiene needs, or
privacy at all, and sometimes there is harassment and abuse of young
girls by the males. In the case of displaced persons, there is no
differentiated care for women. Their health needs regarding menstruation
and family planning are not taken into account.[148]

121. According
to the information and testimonies gathered, displacement leads
Afro-Colombian women to suffer various forms of discrimination in
addition to being women – because they are Afro-Colombian and because
they are displaced. Testimonies that the Rapporteur received from
displaced Afro-Colombian women indicate that they suffer acts of racism,
ridicule and stigmatization by the receiving communities. The Asociación de
Afro-Colombianos Desplazados
(hereinafter “AFRODES”)
has described the persistent belief of receiving communities that “black
women are dirty, thieves, or if they come to work in a house they are
only useful in bed”.[149]
This situation is aggravated by the low levels of education and poverty
of the displaced women, which along with their race challenge their
adequate access to work and to different forms of economic subsistence.[150]

122. The IACHR
verified that the situation of indigenous women is especially critical
due to the serious effects of the armed conflict and the history of
discrimination and exclusion they have faced based on their condition of
indigenous women.[151]

123. The
Rapporteur had the opportunity of meeting in Bogotá and Valledupar with
indigenous women pertaining to different groups and could verify through
their testimonies, that the protection of their rights is directly
linked to the real possibility of living freely in their ancestral
lands. Therefore, while the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples are
not protected and respected by the armed actors indigenous women will
continue to gravely suffer the effects of the armed conflict.

124. From
the varied and categorical testimonies received by the Rapporteur from
indigenous women, it may be concluded that the armed conflict has meant
for indigenous peoples massacres, murders, especially of their leaders
and traditional authorities, kidnappings and massive displacements from
their ancestral lands. The indigenous women communicated to the
Rapporteur that the armed conflict has taken their husbands, their
children, their families and even their land, and they said they were
tired of suffering:[152]

125.
Indigenous women in Colombia are recognized as the reproducers of their
culture, the guarantors of their peoples’ survival. They have resisted
centuries of repression and are now resisting the illegal armed groups
who want to take their territories. They recognize that the
deterioration is immense, but that they continue, because as they say,
not only grief and sadness exist – “the important thing is that we are
still alive.”

126.
Indigenous women belong to societies where the ancestral land is an
essential element of their existence and culture. This is the reason
why any analysis of the human rights situation of indigenous women in
Colombia must consider that they are part of peoples with a different
culture, which have a close connection to their lands. It is important
to note that the armed conflict has turned indigenous lands into
scenarios of war and death.[154]

127. In
Colombia, 84 indigenous peoples inhabit 31 of the 32 departments of the
national territory, comprising 2% of the total population. Their
cultural and social wealth is reflected in their diverse forms of life,
generally closely linked to their ancestral lands, in the defense of
their autonomy, their organizational structures and ways to resolve
conflicts, all of which has enabled them to maintain their cultural
identity.

128. The
Colombian Constitution of 1991 is one of the most interesting and
advanced in the Americas in regards to the rights of indigenous
peoples. The State recognizes and protects the ethnic and cultural
diversity of the Colombian Nation,[155]
recognizes the right of indigenous authorities to exercise judicial
functions within their land according to their own norms and procedures[156],
and grants indigenous lands the status of territorial entities, by
virtue of which they are autonomous to manage their interests, within
the limits of the Constitution and the law.[157]
Accordingly, they have the following rights: 1) to be governed by their
own authorities; 2) to exercise the corresponding competencies; 3) to
administer their resources and establish the necessary taxes to enable
them to perform their functions.[158]

129.
Approximately 27% of the Colombian national territory has been
recognized as property of the different indigenous peoples. This
recognition has been granted by means of resguardos[159],
indigenous reserves with individual titles for the community or
parcialidades.

130. In this
context of constitutional and legal recognition of the rights of
indigenous peoples in Colombia and the enforcement of their rights to
ancestral lands, the internal armed conflict has been developing for
decades. The Colombian State has been a pioneer in the recognition of
the rights of indigenous peoples.

131.
Nevertheless, only in 2005, approximately 19,000 have been forcibly
displaced from their lands.[160]
Even though indigenous peoples constitute about 2% of the total
Colombian population,[161]
12% of the internally displaced persons are indigenous.[162]

132. The IACHR
in its annual report for 2004 stated that, during the past few years,
pressure by illegal armed groups on indigenous lands has intensified.
This is due to their strategic importance, both military and economic,
for growing and trafficking illegal drugs, and the extraction of natural
resources, and for its use in road, mining and hydropower works.
[163]
Several peoples are at risk of disappearing.[164]

133.
Furthermore, the IACHR expressed that in response to this war context,
indigenous peoples had expressed publicly at the national and
international level their categorical denial to be involved in the armed
conflict.[165]
They have demanded from all armed actors respect to their right of
autonomy and neutrality, declaring their community resistance against
the armed conflict actors and the State, in defense of their autonomy,
their human rights and with the objective of safeguarding their
collective survival.

134. The
Rapporteur received testimonies from indigenous women from different
peoples who described the serious challenges they face in their lands
because of the persistent threats and harassment of the armed actors,
and the pressures exercised by third parties sometimes associated with
the armed actors, with the purpose of forcing them to abandon their
lands, to occupy them strategically and/or exploit their natural
resources. An alarming situation is that of the Wayúu women in the
Media Guajira, who have denounced the presence of the AUC in a zone
where there was no conflict. In that area, the members of the AUC have,
for approximately three years, murdered, threatened and harassed members
of the Wayúu people in order to wield political and military control
over a zone that is considered strategic. Wayúu female leaders have
also been threatened, which has required protection by the
Inter-American Human Rights System.[166]

135. As the
Rapporteur learned during her visit to Colombia, indigenous women view
their lands as a fundamental part of their existence. They expressed
that the armed conflict has worsened the situation of marginalization
they face, but that they have suffered a history of discrimination and
marginalization since strangers have desired their lands:

136. Despite
the serious challenges indigenous women face by remaining in their
lands, they have chosen to stay and resist the various methods the armed
actors use to intimidate them. In indigenous lands, the murder of
leaders, the kidnapping of children and the rape of women are part of
the daily reality:

There
have been many human rights violations affecting indigenous and
Afro-Colombians, especially in terms of murders, forced disappearances,
death threats and internal displacement in rural areas.[168]

According to official statistics, some 855 indigenous people were
murdered between 1998 and September 2004 and the OACNUDH reported that
“over 100 indigenous individuals and authorities were murdered”. The UN
Special Rapporteur on the Indigenous Peoples has stated that these
actions constitute “genuine genocide and ethnocide”. In the case of the
Kankuamo people who live on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada in Santa
Marta, some 166 of their members were murdered between 1993 and 2003.
This led the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to issue provisional
measures [for protection] in July 2004, ordering the State to safeguard
the lives and personal well-being of the members of that community and
to investigate and punish prior violations. Nevertheless, less than one
month later, another Kankuamo leader was murdered.[169]

137. As
members of thousand-year old communities, indigenous women communicated
to the Rapporteur that their survival is linked to preserving their
lands, because that is where they can freely express their culture.

138. According
to the National Human Rights Information System (SINDHO) of the
Organización Nacional de Indígenas de Colombia (hereinafter “ONIC”),
21,711 persons have been banished from their reservations and
communities. Between January 1st and December 9 of 2005, 63 indigenous
people were forced per day to migrate from their ancestral lands;
approximately over 12 families a day and nearly three persons per hour.
Over 14 thousand indigenous members of the Nasa peoples (66%) and nearly
4,600 Awa indigenous people (21.3%) were the worst affected by the armed
actors, who were forced, in both cases, to disperse outside of their
communities.[170]

139. In
addition to the pernicious effects provoked by the forced displacement
on persons, indigenous women suffer the cultural impact resulting from
leaving their territories:

If it is
an internal displacement[171]
there are problems because they are disrupting the balance of our
ecosystems. If it is to urban centers, it is a bit more complicated,
since most of our fellow indigenous women don’t know Spanish very well,
the immensity of the city frightens them, with its anonymity and lack of
solidarity among the residents. The memory of our mountains and jungles
and their sound kills us. We face new problems in raising our children
and relating with our partners, because the city is not our customary
environment. We are pursued by the images of the anguish when we had to
leave, running with what little we had or could carry in order to outrun
death and desolation. Amidst this anguish, we are in charge of our
families, accepting activities that are not traditional in our cultures,
such as getting jobs as domestic servants or, in the worst of cases,
even selling our bodies”.[172]

140. In the
visit, it was evident that, even though the State has implemented
actions to address the situation of the displaced population, the
indigenous population was not considered specifically, much less in a
culturally relevant manner, up to a year ago. An UNHCR report from 2003
states: “Regarding the displaced indigenous population in Bogotá there
is no accurate information on how many persons or families have come to
the capital or what conditions they are living in because, when they
register, there is no record of whether they are indigenous, much less
what community or reservation they are from. This has contributed to
making their problems invisible and, in consequence, they feel
unattended.”[173]

Indigenous women have to fight to be recognized as displaced persons,
fight to have access to health care and education even if it is not our
own, prepare meals with food that is alien to our culture and bodies,
struggle for our families not to break apart and our children not to
lose our culture.[174]

141. The
indigenous women who met with the Rapporteur were emphatic in expressing
that the assistance they receive in their capacity as displaced persons
is provisional and insufficient. In Valledupar, the Rapporteur received
testimonies of the unprotected situation of hundreds of widows and
orphans living in extreme poverty and precariousness, who were forced to
abandon their lands where they used to live freely to become extremely
poor people in the cities.[175]
In Valledupar, the situation is especially critical because it is where
most indigenous displaced people arrive from the Sierra Nevada of Santa
Marta, where the Ijka or Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa Arzario and Kankuamo
peoples live. In the case of the Kankuamo peoples, between 1998 and
2004, 189 of their members were murdered and most of the widows and
orphans were displaced to Valledupar.[176]

142.
Indigenous women are clear in explaining what they want and they
communicated it as follows:

We don’t
want any more widowed women, more orphans, we want to return to our
lands.[177]

143. During
her visit to Colombia, the Rapporteur received complaints about the use
of indigenous women as “spoils of war” by the armed actors and verified
that indigenous women have often been victims of sexual violence
perpetrated by members of legal and illegal armed groups.

144. In fact,
the Rapporteur received testimonies from indigenous women denouncing
sexual aggressions perpetrated by the armed actors participating in the
conflict, to the detriment of indigenous women. The same women who
offered these testimonies indicated that the discriminatory attitude of
the aggressor worsens this type of aggression, already alarmingly
serious. They explained that patrols of the different armed groups
occupying indigenous lands kidnap indigenous women, collectively use
them sexually, and then abandon them, protecting themselves by the
impunity of their acts.

145. ONIC
denounced on November of 2005 that “only in Vaupes, in Carurú,
approximately 20 indigenous women have been raped by the Security
Forces, plus one adolescent from the Kokonuco peoples of Cauca”.[178]

146. The
testimonies received reveal that indigenous women do not often denounce
sexual aggressions for different reasons, including cultural. However,
one of the main reasons is that the armed groups that perpetrated such
crimes often have social and political control over the area where they
commit their crimes. Then the women wonder, Where should we file the
complaint? For what?

147. In
regards to this situation, ONIC communicated how common are the
cases of “young women harassed by the armed groups, both legal and
illegal, who use them as emotional support, force them to perform
domestic duties for them, which stigmatizes them for both groups, and
thus forces them to abandon their land, increasing the rate of forced
displacement to cities different from their environment, which also
leads to begging, working as domestic servants and, worse yet, ending up
in prostitution.”[179]

148.
Accordingly, the IACHR considers that the serious effects of the armed
conflict on the lives of Colombian women and men acquire a special
dimension for indigenous women. In fact, the pressure exercised by the
armed groups over indigenous lands, whether for military strategy or
economic reasons, impacts the lives of indigenous women especially
seriously since they perceive their ancestral lands as essential places
for their existence, culture, and family. The main demand of indigenous
women is that their lands should be respected. To the extent indigenous
lands are still subject to military or economic interests, the lives of
indigenous women will remain threatened, as well as the cultural
integrity and the very existence of the peoples they belong to.

[124]
United Nations, Report submitted by Mrs. Radhika Coomaraswamy,
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences: Mission to Colombia (1-7 November 2001),
E/CN.4/2002/83/Add. 3, 11 March 2002, paras. 28 and 42.

[129]
Testimony submitted to the IACHR Rapporteur during her on-site visit
to Colombia by the Foro Interétnico de Solidaridad del Chocó.

[130]
United Nations, Report submitted by Mrs. Radhika Coomaraswamy,
Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and
consequences: Mission to Colombia (1-7 November 2001),
E/CN.4/2002/83/Add. 3, 11 March 2002, paras. 42 and 73; United
Nations, Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the
situation of human rights in Colombia, E/CN.4/2005/10, 28
February 2005, para. 122;
Mesa de Trabajo de Mujer y Conflicto Armado, Impact of the
Armed Conflict on Afrocolombian Women, February 2003, p. 23.

[131]
United Nations, Report of the High Commissioner on Human Rights
on Colombia, E/CN.4/2005/10, 28 February 2005, para. 124.

[132]Mesa de Trabajo de Mujer y Conflicto Armado,
Impact of the Armed Conflict on Afrocolombian Women, February
2003, p. 27.

[133]
Statistics from the Administrative Health Department of Chocó
included in the report: Chocó:Territory of Wealth and
Survival: We Live to Resist, We Resist to Live, presented to the
Rapporteur during her on-site visit by women’s groups and networks
from Quibdó.

[134]
Report: Chocó:Territory of Wealth and Survival: We Live
to Resist, We Resist to Live, presented to the Rapporteur during
her on-site visit by women’s groups and networks from Quibdó.

[135]
National Council of Economic and Social Policy, National Planning
Department, Document CONPES 3310, Affirmative Action Policy for
the Black or Afro-Colombian Population, Bogotá, D.C., 20
September 2004.

[140]Confluencia Nacional de Redes de Mujeres, Corporación Sisma Mujer
and Atelier-IEPALA, Observatory of the Human Rights of Women,
Displaced Women: Actions of the Colombian Government, March
2004, p. 9, citing figures from CODHES. Figures also included in
Confederación de Redes, Red Nacional de Mujeres y la Red de
Educación Popular Entre Mujeres, One Step Forward, Two
Backwards, Shadow Report, Platform of International Conference,
Fourth World Conference on Women, 2004, p. 41; United Nations,
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Assessment of Public Policy on the Prevention, Protection and
Attention for forced internal displacement in Colombia (August
2002 -2004), Bogotá, December 2004, p. 110.

[141]Mesa de Trabajo de Mujer y Conflicto Armado,
Impact of the Armed Conflict on Afrocolombian Women, February
2003, p. 35.

[142]
Testimonies received from Afro-Colombian women by the Rapporteur
during her visit to Quibdó.

[143]
Luz Maria Cabezas-Rincón, The Organization of Displaced Women as
a Possibility for Policy Action: The Case of Women in the
Asociación Afrocolombiana de Desplazados – AFRODES, National
University of Colombia, School of Law, Political and Social
Sciences, Political Science Department, Bogotá, 12 April 2004, p. 92
(provided by CODHES during the visit).

[144]
Luz Maria Cabezas-Rincón, The Organization of Displaced Women as
a Possibility for Policy Action: The Case of Women in the
Asociación Afrocolombiana de Desplazados–AFRODES, National
University of Colombia, School of Law, Political and Social
Sciences, Political Science Department, Bogotá, 12 April 2004, p. 76
(provided by CODHES during the visit):

In the case of
displaced Afro-Colombian women the context in which the
socialization process took place becomes very important in the way
they confront the detachment when they arrive to their new places of
residency. Afro-Colombian women who live in rural areas maintain a
complementary relationship with men, carrying out activities in the
agricultural production process that involve more force than men
develop. They handle the harvest, grind the sugar cane, raise the
animals and in some cases handle fishing as well.

[145]
Luz Maria Cabezas-Rincón, The Organization of Displaced Women as
a Possibility for Policy Action: The Case of Women in the
Asociación Afrocolombiana de Desplazados–AFRODES, National
University of Colombia, School of Law, Political and Social
Sciences, Political Science Department, Bogotá, 12 April 2004.

[146]
Luz Maria Cabezas-Rincón, The Organization of Displaced Women as
a Possibility for Policy Action: The Case of Women in the
Asociación Afrocolombiana de Desplazados–AFRODES, National
University of Colombia, School of Law, Political and Social
Sciences, Political Science Department, Bogotá, 12 April 2004.

[147]
Luz Maria Cabezas-Rincón, The Organization of Displaced Women as
a Possibility for Policy Action: The Case of Women in the
Asociación Afrocolombiana de Desplazados–AFRODES, National
University of Colombia, School of Law, Political and Social
Sciences, Political Science Department, Bogotá, 12 April 2004.

[148]
Report: Chocó:Territory of Wealth and Survival: We Live
to Resist, We Resist to Live, presented to the Rapporteur during
her on-site site visit by women’s groups and networks from Quibdó.

[149]We Forge Hope, First National Meeting of Displaced
Afro-Colombians, Publications ILSA, Editorial UNIBIBLOS,
National University of Colombia, Bogotá, 2001.

[150]
Testimonies received from Afro-Colombian women by the Rapporteur
during her visit to Quibdó.

[152]
“Our fair struggles to have our rights recognized have filled us
with pain and sorrow. Thousands of our brothers have been murdered
during the last four decades for daring to defend our territories;
hundreds have been disappeared, kidnapped, massacred, confined and
many more have been obligated to leave their communities for these
same reasons. The guerrilla groups, self-defense groups and military
and police forces of the Colombian State are responsible for this.”
In The Indigenous Peoples and their Territorial Issues,
National Consensus-Building Forum. Bogotá, 24 - 28 October 2005.

[153]
Testimony by an indigenous woman collected in the Sierra Nevada of
Santa Marta during the on-site visit of the IACHR Rapporteur.

[158]
Additionally, by virtue of Law 21 of 1991, Convention 169 of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) on Indigenous and Tribal
Peoples in Independent Countries was enacted as a Law in Colombia.
Similarly, there is extensive legislation that authorizes the
implementation of the recognized rights both in the Political
Constitution as in the ILO Convention 169. Accordingly, it is
important to stress the jurisprudence issued by the Constitutional
Court of Colombia, a body that has ruled on different issues
involving the rights of indigenous peoples.

[159]
Indigenous reservations are the collective property of indigenous
communities in favor of which they are constituted. Pursuant to
Articles 63 and 329 of the Political Constitution, they are
inalienable, imprescriptible and non-attachable. Reservations are a
legal and socio-political institution of a special nature,
comprising one or more indigenous communities, who have a collective
title of ownership and enjoy the guarantees of private property, own
their territory and are governed in management thereof and their
life within by an autonomous organization supported by indigenous
jurisdiction and their own normative system. In Article 21 of Decree
2164 of 1995.

[160]
United Nations, Press Release, Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees, 9 December 2005.

[161]
In its observations, the State indicates that the Indigenous
population in Colombia ascends to 701,860 persons. Note DDH/OEA
25245/1210 from the Human Rights Direction of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Colombian Republic, 24 May 2006.

[162]
United Nations, Considerations over the International Protection
of Colombian Asylum Applicants and the Refugees, United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, 9 December 2005, para. 124.

[165]
See United Nations, Considerations over the International
Protection of Colombian Asylum Applicants and the Refugees,
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, March 2005.

[166]
IACHR, Annual Report 2004, Chapter III, Precautionary
Measures granted by the IACHR during 2004, Nº 22. On 23
September 2004 the IACHR granted precautionary measures in favor of
Mariana Epinayú, Carmen Cuadrado Fincé, Débora Barros, and Karmen
Ramírez, leaders of the Wayúu indigenous people in the department of
La Guajira. Available information indicates that, during the last
three years, the Wayúu indigenous community has suffered acts of
violence from paramilitary groups commanded by Jorge 40, with
the collaboration or acquiescence of State agents.

[167]
Testimony of an indigenous leader, submitted to the IACHR Rapporteur
during her on-site visit to Colombia.

[168]
United Nations, Considerations over the International Protection
of Colombian Asylum Applicants and the Refugees, United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, para. 124. In just over 11 months
[2005], 84 selective murders were committed; nearly one traditional
authority assassinated every four days. To date, six peoples have
applied to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to request
provisional and/or precautionary protection measures, since neither
the State nor the government have responded favorably to the
genocide and the imminent extinction of over 12 indigenous peoples
in the Amazon region. Press release 189, ONIC Communications,
10 December 2005.

[169]
United Nations, Considerations over the International Protection
of Colombian Asylum Applicants and the Refugees, United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, para. 126.

[170]
Press release 189, ONIC Communications, 10 December 2005. In
this regard, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights in Colombia has reported that nearly 4,000 Embera
indigenous people have been displaced from their territory and are
highly endangered by the cross fire among illegal armed groups.
United Nations System Press Release, 7 May 2005, Office in Colombia
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

[171]
Some indigenous communities have decided not to leave for the
cities, preferring to move within their own territories or toward
other indigenous communities. In these cases they have the opposite
problem to displacement, which is, forced confinement because they
cannot leave or move around freely, having to remain without
protection and under precarious conditions in terms of survival.

[172]
Document entitled Uguerara Da Amba Giunu Tabua submitted to
the IACHR Rapporteur during her on-site visit to Colombia by the
Women’s Division of ONIC, 20 June 2005.

[173]
See The Displaced Population in Bogotá, Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, July 2003, p. 81.

[174]
In the document entitled Uguerara Da Amba Giunu Tabua
submitted to IACHR Rapporteur during her on-site visit to Colombia
by the Women’s Division of ONIC, 20 June 2005.